“Every morning Krilli prepares the many ingredients of Bryggjan’s lobster soup, a tiny cafe in a small town in Iceland. Alli, Krilli’s brother, sits with the old fishermen, the last boxer of Iceland and a writer, who find, every day, a new solution for all the problems of the world.

People from abroad come to Iceland to see the volcanoes, the ice and the genesis of the Earth. And now the tourists and the lava field seem to push the whole town more and more towards the sea. The Bryggjan cafe holds the port, clinging to the ground. It serves as a shelter on the last 3,000 square meters of buildable ground in the harbour for the locals of the town.”

The text is taken from the website of the the production company of the two 

directors Pepe Andreu and Rafa Molés. It’s the “little story” and the “big story” from Grindavik, that lies only 5 km from the famous Blue Lagoon. I have been there but had I known about Grindavik’s lovely café Bryggjan, I had for sure paid a visit to enjoy and observe and talk with the aged customers. They would understand Danish and speak it I am sure.

A visit, at least because of the way that the two Spanish directors saw it and conveyed it warmly into a fine documentary about a place, where people meet in an atmosphere of caring and sharing. Caring about each other and sharing the latest local and global news – having cultural events like readings of literature, jazz music, football matches on tv. With pictures on the wall from before and the delicious lobster soup. No surprise that also tourists feel at home here. No surprise that they also come in groups to be served in the café and visit the local fishing factory. 

Faces of those who come to the café. Marked by time. By Life. By work. A fishermen’s place. Wonderful to see how the camera catches them and the stories that come up. As an example there is a marvellous scene in Bryggjan with Alli (Adalgeir) and the former champion boxer. Bravo filmmakers to stay with them long, while they are singing songs, telling stories, looking at each other, feeling good in each other’s company. Outside the sun is shining or it looks cold with snow. And on the first floor of the Bryggjan building they produce huge fishing nets. Grindavik has 2500 inhabitants, the fishing industry does not go that well any longer, there is a growing interest to have more tourism and there are investors from Reykjavik, who come to visit. At the same time as Alli’s brother Krilli (Kristinn) and his wife would like to move to the capital… won’t be a spoiler, see for yourself.

There is – in this lovely example of slow cinema – a tone of melancholy that is very much personalised in Adalgeir, big beard and big belly, as we see him in Bryggjan and at home; the times they are a changing, we have to face that, and we are not getting younger…

Did I forget to mention that the film is so well made, images and sound and editing? 

http://suicafilms.com/lobster-soup-en/

http://suicafilms.com/lobstersoup/home/

This fine – in aesthetics as well as in content – documentary won The Dragon Award for Best Nordic Documentary at the Göteborg Film Festival beginning of February this year. The jury‘s motivation is so precise and well written that I will use some of the words as starting points for this review’s recommendation to show the film on big screens, when festivals ”open” again.  

This award is given for the curiosity of the directors in observing vastly different opposing groups, resulting in a polyphonic portrait of a country in which peace doesn’t seem welcome. The precise use of photography and editing submerges us in the differing realities presented and creates a stark contrast between the political sensibilities at play in the natural and urban environments, and the associated poverty and luxury. This film goes beyond being an intimate portrait of a country, and makes us reflect upon colonialism and post-colonialism, capitalism and anti-capitalism, and what keeps us going as humanity.

…Observing vastly different opposing groups. The film takes its beginning in the 2016 peace agreement between the government (when the President was Santos) and FARC. There is a focus on the strong young and sympathetic soldier from FARC, Ernesto, who is to be a leading character through the film. He believes in the peace, believes in putting down the weapons after more than 50 years of war, believes in the right movement for FARC from guerilla to political party. He ends up being disappointed, when all hope for peace is crashed; the government sends soldiers to stop the farmers from picking coca leaves to end their sole possibility for having an income; brutality reigns, paramilitary groups operate, the war continues. Another character is a man from the decadent upper class, who says that he would never allow a FARC person to enter his palazzo, and who has no sympathy for the political class – that also includes a right-wing female politician, who express her philosophy more or less like this: the poor are happy with their lives and so are the rich. No problem!

… The precise use of photography. I would go further in my characterisation: The camera work is excellent, lots of close-ups, energy in the scenes with an editing that lets some of them (the scenes) be loose and develop like those with Ernesto and his friend in the tent in the jungle. Funny they are.

… beyond being an intimate portrait of a country. Yes, definitely there is this clear sense of classes, in that way the filmmakers have succeeded in creating a drama as good as any fiction.

2020, Finland, 90 mins.

www.nordiskpanorama.com

I had seen it before, in a rough cut version and in a final version. I had made notes but could not find them so I was happy, when the director Tatia Kkhirtladze asked her distributor Christa Auderlitzky from filmdelights in Vienna to send me a link.

And it was as fresh as the first time I met the film, entertaining and well made, full of joy and lovely archive from the time of Soviet Georgia. Because of the four chess masters looking back, reflecting on what chess has meant to them in their lives as stars, world champions, public figures in Georgia and worshipped abroad, especially in Serbia, where Milunka Lazarevic, a grandmaster herself, is the one who says clever words about the four, especially about ”The Queen”, Nona Gaprindashvili, whose first name is carried by a huge amount of Georgians, as the film proves. Nona has this special sports winning gene that kept her on the top for fifteen years and made her a carreer as a sportswoman in Sovjetunion. Her charisma is strong, she talks about FC Barcelona (writes this fan) and she gives the anecdote that astronaut Gagarin stayed away from a friendly billiard match with her, when he heard that she would probably be better than him!

Maia Chiburdanidze was the world champion, after Nona, also for 15 years. She sticks out from the three others in the way she dresses – the others are ”ladies” – and talks. She says that did not feel free before she lost and felt she played her best chess. A woman close to nature and a woman who produces perfume from herbs. And who loves to tease Nona who in her senior championship activity often is the one becoming number four or so. 

Nana Alexandria and Nana Ioseliani are the two other masters, who are also still active in chess clubs, where they teach kids about the sport or they go around beating men in tournaments. 

… and for me who has been there and love the food and drinks – there is so much to enjoy from Tbilisi and the countryside. Via the fine meetings with four women, as young and as mature grown ups, some grannies. You get the impression that chess has given them a good life.

The film had its world premiere earlier this month at the CineDoc 2020 Festival that runs until the end of this month. I don’t see any reason for the film NOT to travel to other festivals – written by someone who knows nothing about chess.

Georgia, 80 mins., 2020

All right. Shit happens! And I know how the organisers, with their sense of professionalism, feel right now after an award ceremony that was supposed to be “a festive Gala” but was spoilt by technical problems. Here in Copenhagen, in my armchair, with my usual slippers that I have also used for many workshops, when these have taken place in hotels where you stay and work, I saw the wonderful host Nadia Jebril alone in the town hall in Malmö, where I was in persona last year. She was presenting one award after the other. I heard her voice, I saw the nominees, I heard the jurors saying who were the winners, but their lips were not moving. It was like a stop motion animation film. The same for the winners in their homes thanking. A classic dramaturgy for an award ceremony, in this case damaged by technical problems. The organisers recognised the mistakes and ask you to go

to https://www.facebook.com/NordiskPanoramaFilm/videos/779104632910601

if you want to see the award ceremony in the right speed and with image and sound synchron.

Please do so! They deserve it. 

And for the awards, “The Painter and the Thief” by Norwegian Benjamin Ree got the main award. No objections!

«Tamara is a feminist but also a hopeless romantic in love with a Catholic man with whom she shares few beliefs. Sierzput has just won his girlfriend back but is struggling to hold on to her. And out of sheer boredom, Ponek has broken her own rule and has started sleeping with her friends. A love letter to people in their late twenties, where many are waiting for adulthood only to realise it has already arrived.» The words are taken from the catalogue of Nordisk Panorama 2020, about this film that is in the competition section “New Nordic Voice”.

I was puzzled: Why a Polish film in the Nordisk Panorama? I had to go to the Q&A to get the answer. Here Martijn te Pajs, festival programmer and an excellent conversation partner for the young DANISH director, helped me. Karl Forchhammer explained that he had studied in Prague and at the National Film School in England and had filmed «Last Days of Summer» in Warsaw.

I like the Central European culture, Karl Forchhammer said but considers this to be a very Polish film as well. I agree, knowing films by Piotr Stasik and other Polish coming out from the Wajda film school. It has nerve, rythm, it catches moments of intensity and I believe that the world can look like that in a bohemian environment, where cigarettes are smoked constantly, as well as joints, with a lot of bottles in hand and on the tables, with a sex scene, and a lot of sex being discussed, and what is love – «the last days of summer» – what comes after, as the director said in the Q&A. “It was of course a privilege for me – having the same age as the three protagonists – to be able to sit there with them for a week or two without shooting.”

Watch the film, it would not surprise me if there is an award for it. Anyway the director shows big cinematic talent and sensibility, support him!

https://nordiskpanorama.com/en/festival/